A/N: OMg an update it's been awhile I know, been really busy with other things plus had writers block for this fic which is thankfully over! Enjoy the chapter and please review!

Chapter ten: The Innocence of the Youth

"Oh my god!" Akika moaned as she chewed. She forgot to be shy and quiet as she experienced the new taste. Naruto sat by her left grinning as he slurped down his own meal.
"Good isn't it?" he said between slurping. The four older men shook their heads, well three considering that Arashi was devouring his own serving of ramen as well.
"This is…" Akika said shaking her head as she took another bite, she wanted to savor every minute. Naruto laughed having finished his own he watched her.
"You know this wont be the only time you have it, so you can eat it faster." He said. Akika looked up startled and shook his head.
"I don't know how long I can stay here, I'm sure those men are hunting for me…" she said setting the half empty bowl down with a sad look on her face. Kyuubi rolled his eyes.
"God and this is why I always thought human women were annoying, one moment they are happy and then the next they are all weepy." He said in disgust. Akika looked up her eyes hard as she snarled. He smirked.
"The same goes for you Sylph." He said shrugging.
"You should respect women more, they are like a delicate flower that should be admired for all it's beauty!" Jiraiya said posing dramatically. Akika stared at him.
"Umm…" she said weakly, Naruto leaned over to whisper in her ear.
"That's Jiraiya-sensei he is a 'super' pervert, so watch out when you take a bath." He said. This of course had Jiraiya leaping over the table planting his fist on top of Naruto's head.
"Shut up! I would never intrude on her privacy!" he shouted. Akika sat very still her eyes wide.
"I…don't understand what's going on here?" she said weakly. A hand ruffled the top of her hair and she looked up to see a face covered up to eyes smiling at her.
"It doesn't matter, you look tired. Why don't I walk you back to your room so you can get some more sleep." He said smiling. Akika blinked and slowly nodded taking his hand allowing herself to be led from the room. Naruto rubbed the top of his head watching Kakashi lead the girl away. He heard a soft laughter and turned to see Kyuubi laughing hard. Naruto sighed then quickly polished off his ramen.
"I'm going for a walk he declared." Heading for the door.
"No your not." A voice countered, Naruto growled turning just as Arashi set his empty bowl down and stood up.
"Why not! Besides your not the boss of me!" Naruto said angrily. Arashi smirked.
"Because I'm older and stronger than you? You are going to begin training Naruto, physical now. So come on, shall we dance?" he asked raising an eyebrow. Naruto narrowed his eyes.
"I don't know." He said. Arashi laughed walking over grabbing one of Naruto's ears dragging him outside as the boy yelped and tried to punch him.
"Let go you homicidal maniac!" Naruto shouted. Arashi grinned, it was going to be very entertaining training…

later that night
Naruto dragged his body into the bathhouse and slipped into a blessedly hot bathtub. Sinking down to his chin he sighed closing his eyes. He was amazed, Arashi had gotten serious and had not held back not even the slightest, he almost wished he could go back to being trained by Jiraiya. Groaning he rolled his left shoulder, he had landed rather painfully on the ground the last attack he had tried on Arashi, after that the man had forced him to rudimentary attacks, saying that Naruto needed to go back to the basics of fighting. He submerged himself completely fuming. He didn't need to relearn the basics what he needed to do was learn more powerful attacks or improve on the ones he knew. But no, the dammed Hokage declared that he was going back to the basics. Emerging gasping from lack of air Naruto tested his shoulder and hissed in pain.
"I'm not healing that Kit." He heard from the doorway. He turned and glared at Kyuubi.
"I didn't ask you to!" he snarled. Kyuubi chuckled walking into the room sliding the door shut he had a towel in his hands.
"You stay in here much longer you'll regret it." The older man said smiling. Naruto stuck his tongue out at him.
"I just got in, besides you're just a demon fox you wouldn't know anything about human things!" Naruto said grumpily. Kyuubi raised an eyebrow and walked over setting the towel down, then with one hand shoved Naruto's head back under water holding it there till the boy thrashed. Letting go he smirked as Naruto gasped for breath.
"Out. Tub. Now Kit." Kyuubi commanded but didn't leave the room. Naruto sputtered and glared at him.
"Why couldn't you just keep your nose out of my business what do you care anyway!" Naruto shouted suddenly angry. Kyuubi tilted his head to the side.
"First, if you die, I die, that's still the case even with me being here. Second for some strange reason I have yet to understand, I…shocking as it is, care about you Kit. Now would you kindly get out, so I can see what that dumb blonde did to you." Kyuubi said annoyed. Naruto narrowed his eyes.
"It's not that you won't heal me is it." He stated. Kyuubi rolled his eyes.
"Perhaps but then again I am not going to say anything either way, do you need help getting out?" he demanded a evil grin. Naruto quickly got from the tub wrapping the towel around his waste looking for his clothes.
"Don't bother they were covered in dirt." Kyuubi said advancing on Naruto. Naruto rolled his eyes.
"Leave me alone Kyuubi." He said bad temperedly. Kyuubi shrugged.
"Suit yourself kit." He said walking towards the door, but then paused turning to look at him.
"You do need to practice the basics, running off to train on your own isn't the best idea. Besides, I wont allow it. It's not just your life at stake I'd like to remind you. But mine as well. So why don't you stop and actually be thankful that you have people willing to stop you. Your friend is self centered, he ran off not caring what it did to his friends, and I expect you to make him sorry he ever did that. He tried to kill you Naruto, yet you still consider him your friend, isn't that impossible?" he asked. Naruto opened his mouth and closed it unable to respond. Kyuubi rolled his eyes and turned back to face Naruto shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Listen I'll make a deal with you Naruto." He said finally. Naruto blinked.
"What kind of deal?" he asked. Kyuubi looked uncomfortable.
"A win, win one. I'll give you my chakra just like I used to, and this time you wont have to fear loosing control, because of the fact that I am also my own person. However you have to do something for me in return." He said. Naruto sat on the edge of the tub.
"And what would that be?" he asked.
"Listen to the dumb blonde and your other sensei's they know what they are talking about. Trust me on this, I'll take the deal one step further, I won't kill any humans, and I'll protect you." Kyuubi said. Naruto stared at him.
"Because if I die you die right?" he stated. Kyuubi rubbed his head groaning.
"That's part of it, enough of it. Listen, stop calling me Kyuubi, alright? If you do it all the time here, when we do go back to Konoha it might slip out and I don't want to have a mob of people trying to take my head off." He said. Naruto nodded.
"That makes sense." He said. Kyuubi smiled again a glint in his eyes.
"Good, so do we have a deal?" he asked. Naruto groaned and stood up again.
"I guess it wouldn't be that hard to listen to them, and as long as I listen it doesn't mean I have to like it." He said. Kyuubi clapped his hands.
"Right! Now can I please look at the damage the dumb blonde did to you?" He said. Naruto stared at him.
"What hurts you annoys me as well." Kyuubi said quickly. Naruto rolled his eyes.
"I guess." He said shaking his head as Kyuubi walked up and immediately looked at his injured shoulder.
"How hard did you land on this?" He asked. Naruto shrugged wincing.
"Not that bad." He said.
"You…are a klutz." Kyuubi said with a grin gripping Naruto's shoulder and arm then yanked hard on the arm, a loud pop and shooting pain greeted Naruto.
"OW! What the hell did you do!" he said yanking his arm free staring in shock at the man. Kyuubi grinned, obviously enjoying the inflicted pain.
"You dislocated it, there should be enough of me left in you to speed up the healing enough for you tomorrow." He said cheerfully as he pointed to a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt.
"You can wear those, you should get some sleep to. I have a feeling the dumb blonde is going to have you up bright and early." Kyuubi said leaving Naruto rubbing his shoulder and glaring at his back.
"You enjoyed doing that to me!" he accused, Kyuubi turned grinning even more.
"Yes, I think I might study more on the human body, it seems you can cause pain even by healing it. Very interesting." He said leaving the room. Naruto shuddered and quickly got dressed. He had a bad feeling.

"YEOW!" the scream shot Akika awake she set still in terror.
"Relax girly it's just that boy training." Sylph said in her mind. Akika sighed in relief putting her hand to her heart.
"Why am I so scared at everything?" she asked her voice shaking as her heart continued to race refusing to calm down.
"Let's see, you were being controlled by some psychopaths who destroyed your home, and everything you knew. That alone is reason to not trust easy." Sylph said amused. Akika rubbed her face in her ands and shivered.
"Should I stay or should I leave?" she asked. Sylph laughed.
"Stay or leave it makes no difference to me. However it does you. So we stay girly. You want to, it is safe with these people, and they will fight against those men at some point they will have to. So we can get back at them." Sylph said. Akika nodded slowly.
"Alright." She said standing and pushing open her door, she stared at Naruto who was laying in the center courtyard trying to catch his breath, Arashi was drinking out of a mug standing there as well though he appeared to be bored.
"Now do you see why the basics are important? I didn't do anything other than use them, and now look at yourself." Arashi said amused.
"Perhaps, helping the boy out maybe fun?" Akika smiled and walked out to the two males trying to look innocent. She had to agree with Sylph trying out this man did seem entertaining.
"What's up?" she asked innocently. Arashi smiled.
"Training." He said as Naruto groaned from his place on the ground.
"Come on up and at em' Naruto you can't be tired already." Arashi said setting his mug down.
"Can I try?" Akika said stopping the man in his tracks he turned and faced her raising an eyebrow.
"You want to train?" he asked. Akika moved her foot in the dirt.
"Yes." She said. Naruto sat up and looked at her.
"Are you sure, he doesn't play fair." Naruto whined. Arashi nudged the boy with one of his feet.
"Stop complaining, you want to get stronger you do it my way." He said smirking. Akika smiled.
"So can I?" she asked shyly. Arashi nodded and began walking away from Naruto.
"Sure I don't see why not you might want to ta…" he began but found himself on the ground. He turned seeing Akika smiling softly behind him.
"Oh now this is going to be real fun." Arashi said grinning. Standing up he dusted himself off.
"I take it you don't want me to hold back?" he asked. She shook her head grinning.
"Don't hold back just because I'm a girl." She said. Arashi smiled and then flickered, Akika turned sharply but her reaction was a second to late and was down on the ground. Standing she smiled.
"I wasn't holding back because you were a girl." Arashi said grinning. Akika tilted her head to the side then charged at him, he flashed and then appeared right beside her bringing his knee into her stomach knocking the air from her lungs.
"Are you having fun playing with children?" a voice taunted from nearby. Akika knelt coughing as Arashi turned to face the voice. Kyuubi stood on the deck grinning, Jiraiya stood beside him smirking as did Kakashi who as always had his nose in a book.
"Now why don't you leave the children to me, you adults have to go play elsewhere now." He said. Arashi raised an eyebrow.
"What's going on?" he demanded walking over to them, Jiraiya shook his head well aware that two sets of ears were listening intently.
"We have a lead." He said, Arashi narrowed his eyes.
"You have an exact location of their whereabouts?" he asked. Jiraiya nodded as did Kakashi who handed Kyuubi his book.
"Enjoy it. And perhaps you can take the two to the town, there is a festival going on tonight, I took Naruto earlier but the three of you should have fun." Kakashi said grinning walking over to Naruto flicking the boy's earring.
"Behave, okay?" he said ruffling the boy's hair. Naruto made a face at him. Turning Kakashi faced Akika.
"Keep an eye on him for me." He said fondly then he turned nodding to the others.
"Bye." Arashi said as he left. Naruto made a face as he watched them walk away. Akika sighed.
"Now what?" she asked and yelped as a kimono was thrown on top of her head. Removing it she looked to see Naruto had one as well. Turning the two stared at Kyuubi.
"We have a festival to go to tonight. So go get ready." The man said stalking off.
"He can't be serious." The two said at the same time exchanging a look.

A/N: Just ta give you a bit of an idea yes I am actually going to do a festival I just don't have time to write it out right now, have to go to my new job…I have to wear heels ick XD hope you enjoyed the chapter.